Managing Wedding Vendors
A wedding involves 8-15 vendors on average. The photographer often becomes the unofficial coordinator, fielding questions about timelines and locations. creavio gives you a system to track vendor contacts and share relevant details without becoming everyone's project manager.
Adding Vendors to a Booking
Open the wedding booking and go to the Vendors tab. Click Add Vendor and enter:
- Name: Business name or individual name
- Role: Venue, planner, florist, DJ, caterer, officiant, videographer, hair/makeup, etc.
- Contact: Email and phone number
- Notes: Load-in times, restrictions, preferences
You can create vendors manually for each booking or pull from your saved vendor directory. If you frequently work at the same venues with the same planners, save them once and reuse them.
Building Your Vendor Directory
Go to Bookings > Vendors to manage your directory. This is a contacts list specifically for vendors you work with regularly. Add preferred venues, planners, and fellow creatives. When you create a new wedding booking, pull vendors from this list instead of re-entering contact information.
Your vendor directory is separate from your client CRM. Vendors are collaborators, not customers.
Sharing Timeline with Vendors
From the booking timeline, click Share > Vendor View. This generates a link that shows the timeline without pricing, client personal details, or your internal notes. Vendors see:
- Event schedule with times and locations
- Their specific responsibilities highlighted
- Contact information for key people (you, the planner, the couple)
Send this link via email directly from creavio. It is tracked in the booking activity log.
Venue Coordination
For each venue, store key logistical details in the vendor notes:
- Photographer load-in time and location
- Restricted areas or no-photography zones
- Lighting conditions (indoor, outdoor, mixed)
- Ceremony and reception space dimensions
- Sunset direction and time for the wedding date
- Parking instructions for your team
If you shoot at the same venue multiple times, these notes carry over. You build institutional knowledge that improves every shoot.
Preferred Vendor Referrals
When couples ask "Do you know a good florist?", pull up your vendor directory filtered by role. You can even add a rating to each vendor based on your experience working with them. This becomes your personal referral network.
Consider adding a preferred vendor list to your website or client portal. Vendors who receive referrals from you are more likely to refer clients back.
Day-Of Communication
The vendor tab on mobile gives you instant access to every vendor's phone number during the event. When the florist is late or the DJ needs to know the first dance song, you are not scrolling through your personal contacts or text threads. Everything is in the booking.
Post-Wedding Vendor Follow-Up
After delivery, share a few vendor-tagged images with each vendor from the gallery. Florists want photos of their arrangements. Venues want shots of their space in action. This builds relationships and often results in cross-promotion.
You can tag images in your media library with vendor names, then quickly pull and share them.